Traveling

Last night I went to my beautiful Auntie's house for dinner. I had been invited to dinner to look at her travel photos from 1982-1983, when she completed a gap year having finished university.

This was quite timely, given I am about to do the same in 26 days (but who's counting?).

It was interesting to see how many countries my Aunt managed to cover during her year away. She started in LA, then moved through Canada, then through Austria, Italy, Brussels, Germany, France, Amsterdam, Israel, Egypt, Singapore... I was so impressed by the vast distances and experiences she managed to achieve in such a short amount of time.

And what was amazing was that, even though 28 years had passed, nothing about her trip seemed dated or old-fashioned. Seeing my Aunt as a 23 year-old young woman was also fascinating. I'd never seen photos of her when she was younger, nor my other Aunt or my Dad, who accompanied her on her trip. The fashions were brilliant and the mannerisms and expressions I still see today were imprinted on their mid-20s faces.

What I gained from last night, poring over the photos, was how life-changing traveling can be, and how momentous a gap year is in one's life. Anything is possible.

I am ridiculously excited to begin my adventure, but can't help noticing the pressure that, in 25 years time, I better have good photos and stories to tell my nieces/ nephews.

Photo courtesy of: http://www.bgsu.edu/departments/greal/llc/spanishwq/Span101_El_Puente/index/backpacker.jpg

Beautiful Bali

I recently spent ten days travelling around Bali with my beautiful family. It was an amazing experience and I thoroughly enjoyed being exposed to the glorious culture that is Bali. The people I encountered were genuinely pleasant, sweet-natured, good-humoured and although it might be a generalisation, they all seemed very content.

I aspire to reach that inner peace and tranquility - I find that burning incense always helps, oh and the massages (which are the equivalent of AUD $6) certainly don't hurt.

I adored creating wood paintings, visiting a traditional Balinese village up in the hills of Ubud, and visiting gorgeous spice farms near Kintomani Volcano. I was enthralled by the Balinese dancing and enchanted by the xylophone style music played for us each morning by a lovely local blind man in our resort.

An additional bonus of the trip was the incredible shopping opportunities. I bought the most ridiculous amount of "stuff" (read 11kgs of extra weight in my suitcase upon return to Australia): custom-made leather boots, six sun dresses, two pairs of leather thongs, three pairs of sunglasses, a fedora hat, 13 DVDs, batik sarongs, facials, six Bintang singlets for friends, mani and pedicures, as well as silver jewellery. I literally took only $300 and struggled to spend it all. I was doing my duty by supporting the local Balinese retail industry after all.

My favourite beaches, if you get the chance to travel to Bali, are Geger Beach and Pedang Pedang - think turquoise water, white white sand, sun beds, beach umbrellas and you're about halfway to imagining the beauty of these places.

Here is the link to the YouTube video I created from our holiday:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vdkr6RcoFyc

I'd thoroughly recommend a holiday to Bali - I know there are reasonably priced airfares to the beautiful Indonesian island at the moment... why not make the most of them?!

Image courtesy of: http://www.fortunatur.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/Beach-Club-at-Geger-Beach.jpg

Amsterdam

At the end of 2008 my family and I went traveling for six weeks around Europe. It was a holiday of a lifetime - something I will always remember. But why was it so special? Well for one, I know that, with me at 20 years old, my brother at 17 years old, and my sister at nine years old, there are only few holidays left for us to enjoy all together. Before we know it, we'll be overseas, working, simply don't want to go on family holidays anymore, or maybe Mum and Dad will limit their trips to taking Olivia only.

Regardless, I feel the need to share with you the main locations we visited:

• Amsterdam
• London
• Chamonix
• Aosta
• Geneva

One of my favourite places that we visited was Amsterdam. It is unlike any other place I've ever been to, full of a vibrant buzz and the people are just so friendly. I also have family in Amsterdam and it was great to get to visit them and to visit their houses.

While in Amsterdam, we went on a 20km bike ride out to the countryside, passing windmills and canals - such a special experience. We also traveled to Leidseplein - I loved it there - my brother and sister both went ice skating, and we sat next to people enjoying glasses of wine and chatting, all rugged up as it snowed prettily around us. The transport in Amsterdam was a cinch - easy to get around on trams and bicycles.

We did do the expected- by visiting the Red Light District - and I found it utterly fascinating. It wasn't as bad as I imagined it might be. Mind you, when we went it was only about 10.30pm (so there weren't too many drunkards around), and the girls didn't appear to be drugged out of their minds, as I thought they might be. In fact, many of them looked like they really took care of themselves and had nice outfits... still, the journalist in me wanted to find out how they'd made it into that industry? Did they enjoy it?

We visited Anne Frank's house, which I found very interesting and worthwhile, and it was fascinating to see how she and her family had lived during their time in hiding.

But if you want to know what I loved the most, it was easy for me to choose. I loved riding my bike past all the little houses, side-by-side with their curtains wide open. Families were sitting around pianos, kids were doing puzzles together, a woman was patting her dog, a man typed at his laptop - it was a very private insight into the lives of the average Amsterdam-ers. Because we rode our bikes on the ferries over into suburbia, we were able to access these suburban roads and therefore gained a great perspective on life in Amsterdam for the locals. The charming notion of revealing your inner life to others by keeping your house open to the outside is special and, certainly in my suburb in Sydney, does not happen. Everybody keeps their doors shut and their shutters closed - but not in Amsterdam.

Here are some photos from my time in Amsterdam.

Happy families.

I'm feeling pretty annoyed at the moment because i've had a sizable argument with my parents, as my mother put it, "you've created a tsunami through this house tonight." Exaggeration? It's quite possible. Given that my family has spent the past week going to the cricket, going to Jamberoo, visiting Canberra, going Ten-Pin Bowling etc while I've been working an 8-5pm job, it might seem reasonable that I feel some slight resentment towards them when they turn around and complain that they "haven't really had much of a holiday." But no more boring you with my private family bickering.

That's what happens when one moves from living in either share accommodation - or away from home in some other capacity - to being back at home. Whether it be because one can't afford to live elsewhere, they need to save up money, or Uni ends for the year and one is faced with the dilemma of how to spend their three month Uni break, living back at home is sometimes necessary, and can be nice. For the first two, maybe three days. Then the old niggling annoyances creep their way back into home life and you quickly lose your 'how good is living with the folks' amnesia.

Sure, there are perks. It can be nice eating a meal as a family, or going kayaking all together, as we did last weekend. It is even enjoyable chilling in front of the television together. That is, if everyone can agree on watching the same program.

I have found it challenging, particularly at the age of 20, to try and conform to the expectations my parents have of me whilst living in their house. More than once they've pulled the "We could make you pay rent here you know?"

Fortunately I have my own car, but other parents I know - and up until I owned a car, I was subjected to this as well - like to announce that "I can just confiscate my car from you right now, you know?" Great. This leaves many young people with absolutely no freedom at home, and similarly little ability to escape one's stifling home environment using public transport because, let's face it, travelling on the Northern Beaches' poorly organised public transport network is never that successful.

Perhaps I should enjoy what is left of living at home while it lasts, after all, in a few years' time (and hopefully after I finish university at the end of this year), I'll be able to travel, gain employment, move out for good, and look fondly back on the years I had growing up in my family house. But until then, I suppose it's a matter of putting up with the grievances of living in the parents' house, and bite my tongue as much as possible, in order to avoid creating ripples, or "tsunamis" as my Mum so subtly puts it.